


Difficult Situation, not Person

by SkySkySkylar



Series: Reforging [2]
Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 16:09:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1108862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkySkySkylar/pseuds/SkySkySkylar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daja and Briar talk after "Pain, for All of Them"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Difficult Situation, not Person

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Kris11 during the 2013 Goldenlake Wishing Tree Exchange. Prompt: Briar and Daja. It takes place an hour or two after "Pain, for All of Them," but should work as a standalone as well. This one wanted to get written in present tense – not sure why.

Daja finds Briar outside, pruning his _shakaans_ , with one of Tris's mage-lights next to him. 

"Hello," she says, lowering herself onto a stool and stretching her legs out.

Briar glances at her. "Hello," he says, already pruning again.

They stay like that in silence for a while, until Briar sighs and turns toward Daja. "I'm sorry for being so..." – he searches for the right word for a few seconds – "...difficult, earlier."

"You weren't being difficult," Daja replies. Seeing that he is about to object, she adds "really, you weren't. You're in a difficult situation, trying to deal with everything that happened in Gyonxe, but that doesn't mean that you're being difficult. You're just dealing with a difficult thing."

Briar thinks about that for a moment, and then half smiles. "All right. I guess that's true."

"Of course it's true," says Daja, in her loftiest manner.

Briar chuckles. "That tone works better on Sandry."

Daja smiles. "I guess it does." Getting off her stool, she comes to sit in the dirt next to Briar. "How can I help?"

Briar looks at the _shakaan_ he had been pruning. "With what?" he asks. "With this – he gestures to the _shakkans_ , and more broadly to the garden – "or with..." he trails off, but they both know what he means.

"Anything," Daja says, after a moment.

"I'm not sure," answers Briar. He picks up his pruning shears and trims one of the branches. "Maybe... can you..."

Softly, Daja asks "what is it?"

"Tris," says Briar. "Can you ask her to – the mind healer. She could lay off a bit. I – " He looks at Daja, and she looks back at him. "I know I should see one," he says softly.

Daja nods. "I'll ask her," she says. "I will. And then, if it's all right with you, I'll help you find one."

Slowly, Briar nods. It costs him a lot to do so.

Daja leans in and hugs him. Briar resists for a moment, and then relaxes into her arms. Daja won't let anything terrible happen to him. All the girls will be with him while he does this, but Sandry lives at the Citadel and Tris is prickly and both of them care maybe a little too much – Daja isn't pushy, although she is stubborn as anything. She's the support he needs right now.

_I'm so glad we're friends again,_ he thinks to her.

Her response to this is to hug him tighter, so that he squeaks and wriggles free.

_So am I_ , he hears her think.


End file.
